Strategic Management Analysis Apple Inc

Question: Discuss about theStrategic Management Analysisfor Apple Inc. Answer: Introduction The development of the technology had implemented the foundation of latest methods and tools for the implication of the strategies and formation of smart operational systems (Hill et al., 2014). The business organizations have been using the strategic management and technological development simultaneously for assisting them in their operations. The various functions and strategies had been implemented and managed by the managers of the organizations. The following report had highlighted the development of the strategic management and its role in the development of the operations of the organizations. The organization selected for the analysis is Apple Inc. The report would provide an insight on the sales goal and objectives of the organizations. Apple Inc would also be critically evaluated from the competitive factors of the organization. The study would reflect the strategic alignment and of companys goals and objectives. Overview of the Selected Organization The Apple Inc is best known all over the world for its computer devices and mobile phones. The Macintosh is a personal computer line that had been largely sold all over the world. The company is based in America and the CEO of the company is Steve Jobs. Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak, and Ronald Wayne had founded the company in the year 1976 (Apple Info Apple, 2017). Apple had formed a brand reputation over the years. The non-users of Apple products often blame the device for being overpriced. The various products and services of Apple Inc include the I-phone, I-pad, Mac OS X, iTunes, and iPod. Sales Goal and Objectives of Apple Apple has become one of the most recognized global companies in the current time due to its business goals and objectives (Apple, 2017). The sales goal of the company include delighting the customers, focus of finding solutions to the customers problem, and recruiting right people. Apple has been focusing on the customers problem instead of selling their products. The company makes loyal customers by providing them with best of services and the customers buy their products themselves. The company had never pushed selling its products. All it had to do was to provide right people to serve the customers. The objectives of the company are to build a relationship with the customers by extending the minutest details for customer services, gaining loyalty from customers, and reaching to newer people by market extension (Rothaermel, 2015). The good design, attractive products, and clever marketing are helpful for attaining the objectives of the organization. Competitive Analysis of Apple The porters five forces can be used for analysis of the competitive analysis of Apple. The model of porters five forces has been shown below: Figure 1: Porters Five Forces Model (Source: E. Dobbs, 2014, pp-43) The porters five forces can be used for explaining the competitive analysis of Apple Inc. According to Fiorani, Cavicchi and Angelini, (2016), the porters five forces model for analysis of Apples competitors consists of bargaining power of customers, threat of new entrants, threat of rivalry, bargaining power of suppliers, and threat of substitute products. Bargaining power of customers: The bargaining power of customers is medium in case of Apple. The company supports the focus on customers and their needs. Hence the bargaining power of the customers is moderate. Threat of new Entrants: Apple has been holding a weak spot for the customers and its customers have been loyal to the brand. The threat of new entrants is really low as the company has its own operating system, design and features have made the product unique. Threat of Rivalry: Apple products are par from excellence and the OS X platform used by the devices is the most secure platform. Hence, the company does not have any immediate threat from rivals. However, the growth of demand of Android devices had brought some considerations for Apple. Bargaining power of suppliers: The suppliers of Apple have high power of bargaining. The companys technology and even components are very different from any other company. Hence, it is important for keeping the suppliers intact and loyal to the company. Threat of substitute products: There is no substitute for the Apple devices and services available. Hence the company has low probability of threat for substitution due to absence of its substitute. The competitors of Apple include Dell, Hewlett Packard, Toshiba, Gateway, Allienware, Cisco and Netgear,Blackberry, and Samsung in the field of personal computers, networking, and mobile phones. Strategic Alignment of Goals and Objectives at Apple The strategic alignment of the goals and objectives of Apple has been done for improving the operations of the company and forming a compact structure of operations (Hill et al., 2014). The goals of Apple include delighting the customers, focus of finding solutions to the customers problem, and recruiting right people. The objectives of the company consist of building a relationship with the customers, processing the minute details of the requirements, gaining loyalty from customers, and extension of the market capture (Rothaermel, 2015). The alignment of the goals and objectives had resulted in bringing out the following features of the operations of Apple, Customer centric operations and development Making brand recognition by providing unparallel services Extension of sales market operations to Global operations Effective training and recruitments Benefits of Data Management at Apple Apple had seen a massive increment of the customers and it has resulted in increasing the overall data input in the company (Ethiraj, Gambardella Helfat, 2016). The data management had been helpful for making the data stacked concisely and effectively. The overall benefits of data management at Apple are: Scalable data: The data management had been helpful for managing the increased quantity of data at Apple (Xiaofeng Xiang, 2013). The growth of operations to global scale had resulted in increasing the data quantity that needs to be managed in uniform stack for ease of access. Adaptability of changes: The data management had been helpful for adapting any change in data stored at Apple. The employment of the adaptability functions had caused the database to adopt any change required in the processes. Reduction of errors: The data management had been helpful for managing and avoiding the errors that may be faced during the operations of the system. Importance of Web2 and Web3 Technologies Web2 technologies were founded in the year 2004 and it included the functions of interaction and collaboration (Huang, Chen Mo, 2015). The users can contribute to the modification of the contents of the web such as in Social sites, quizzes, and Wikis. The social sites have become the most prominent place on Internet to promote their products and services. The quizzes and social media conversation had been helpful for knowing the customers requirements and getting their feedbacks. Web3 technologies had been formed with the development of the web based interactions and technology (Tanaka et al., 2014). The examples of such technologies include online games, machine learning, and artificial intelligence and it has been helpful for delivering the relevant contents to the users. The development of artificial intelligence has helped in developing SIRI in Apple devices. The AI has been helpful for the users to operate the device with assistance from the machine. Threats of Apple According to Volk et al., (2015), the threats to Apple Inc are the emergence of Chinese devices, growth of Android devices, decrease in overall sales, and high security demands. Chinese Phone companies: Chinese phone companies such as Xiaomi and Huawei have seen considerable growth of the sales. The devices have being sold on larger scale in competition to Apple devices. Android devices: The increase of demand of Android devices has also resulted in decreasing the sales of IOS devices. The demand of the android has overcome the requirement of IOS devices. Decrease in overall sales: The Company has seen the decrement of the overall sales by 7.6% from the last year and it was due to the increased demand of Android phones and Chinese devices. Conclusion It can be concluded from the report that the Apple devices have deployed strategic management for the operations of their company. The increase of the overall functions and improvement of operations had been formed with the deployment and alignment of the sales goals and objectives. Apple had seen many benefits of data management and some of them have been highlighted in the report such as scalable data, adaptability of changes, and reduction of errors. It has be also evident from the report that Web2 and Web3 technologies had been formed with the development of the web based interactions and technology. 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